Porvenir

Porvenir is a community in northwest Presidio County on the banks of the Rio Grande across from Pilares, Chihuahua. Isolated by the Sierra Vieja range, Porvenir is twenty-four miles southwest of Valentine and U.S. Highway 90. The town's name means "future" in Spanish. Porvenir may be best known for an incident in 1918 called the Porvenir Massacre, in which the Texas Rangers , assisted by United States Army troopers of the Eighth Cavalry and ranchers on a search for outlaws, shot and killed fifteen Mexican men. The village was abandoned for several years after the massacre. In 1918 the population of Porvenir was estimated at 140. A post office was established in 1926. By 1940 Porvenir had a single business and a population of twenty. In 1948 the post office was discontinued, and no further population figures were recorded for the town.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.